Today's edition of quick hits:
* Among the more heartbreaking post-Sandy scenes is the devastation on Staten Island.
* Tempers flare: "Patience wore thin over gas shortages, power failures and long lines for everything from buses to food handouts on Friday, as many parts of the New York City region struggled to recover from the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy."
* The U.S. death toll from Sandy is nearing 100, and seems likely to grow.
* President Obama, back on the campaign trail, made his first public remarks today about Mitt Romney's Jeep-Chrysler-China lie.
* Syria: "The Obama administration's suggestion this week that it was prepared to sideline the opposition-in-exile Syrian National Council and attempt to handpick more representative leaders at a crucial meeting next week came after months of frustration over the group's dysfunction and ineffectiveness."
* Benghazi: "Security officers from the C.I.A. played a pivotal role in combating militants who attacked the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, deploying a rescue party from a secret base in the city, sending reinforcements from Tripoli, and organizing an armed Libyan military convoy to escort the surviving Americans to hastily chartered planes that whisked them out of the country, senior intelligence officials said Thursday."
* Economic history: "[D]espite the view held by many that the GOP is the party of economic prosperity and soaring stock markets, the opposite has historically been true. Over the past six decades, Republican administrations have produced median economic growth of 2.6 percent. Democratic administrations, meanwhile, have produced a median growth rate of 4.2 percent."
* Here's a tip for Republicans: avoid phrases such as "the rape thing."
* And I've seen some ugly China-bashing this election season, but it looks like the Ohio Republican Party has found a way to hit the bottom of the barrel.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
